Menu templates in Word: the usual problems and how to escape them

The same old problems

If you’ve ever made a menu in a word processor, you’ll recognise some of these:

• Wandering prices. They’re lined up with spaces or tabs, and as soon as you change a dish name they move.
• Dot leaders that stop short or spill onto the next line.
• Columns that jump: add one dish and half a section moves to the next page.
• Invisible tables nobody dares touch because everything falls apart.
• Fonts that vanish when the file is opened on another computer.
• The logo moves every time you edit the text above it.
• What you see isn’t what prints: different margins on screen, in the PDF and on paper.
• Endless versions: “menu_FINAL_v3_really-final.docx”.
• Allergens pasted in as images, one by one, which slip out of place when the text changes.

A menu is a structured list (sections, dishes, descriptions, prices) and a word processor is designed for paragraphs. It can be done, but it’s hard work.

If you’re sticking with Word, at least…

If you’d rather keep your document for now, these tricks reduce the trouble:

• Align prices with a right-aligned tab stop with a dot leader, never with spaces.
• Use paragraph styles for sections, dishes and descriptions instead of formatting by hand.
• Export to PDF with the fonts embedded before sending it to print.
• Keep a single file and save old versions with the date in the name.

How to move your Word menu into MenuDesign

1. Open your document and select all the text (Ctrl + A, or Cmd + A on a Mac).
2. Copy (Ctrl + C) and paste into MenuDesign.
3. Check that sections, dishes, descriptions and prices are in the right place. Anything that hasn’t been read correctly, you fix in the editor.
4. Choose a design from the 50 available and a format: A4, slim A4, A5, US Letter, booklet, tri-fold…
5. Mark the allergens for each dish.
6. Download the PDF or print straight away.

If you only have the printed menu, take a photo: the text is recognised on your own device, with nothing uploaded.

How to prepare the text so it reads better

It isn’t essential, but it helps:

• Section headings on a line of their own: “Starters”, “Mains”, “Desserts”.
• One dish per line, with the price at the end.
• The description on the line after the dish name.
• Remove the decoration: lines of dashes, asterisks or ornamental symbols.

What you gain by switching

• Prices always aligned, whatever you change.
• One click to change format or design without redoing anything.
• Allergens with an automatic key and an A4 allergen matrix for the venue.
• Translation into six languages and a bilingual mode.
• A single version saved in your browser, with a JSON backup whenever you want.
• No account: MenuDesign is free and needs no sign-up.

You don’t have to bin your Word file: keep it as an archive. But the next time you change a price, it’ll take you a minute. Open the editor to start.